Greater Efficiency and Reputation Protection

Online, March 29, 2013 (Newswire.com) - For SMC, a global manufacturer of pneumatic and electric automation equipment for advanced automation in production environments, it is important that they provide their customers with the highest quality every time.

According to Manufacturing Engineer Jason Ricketts, SMC works with "everything that handles, manipulates or works on air," including industrial air filters. A manufacturer of cutting systems for industrial applications called on SMC to add an alignment pin to its air filters but there was one problem.

"You do this by disassembling the unit, putting a pin inside the body, then reassembling the filter," Ricketts says. "In the process of reassembling, we were occasionally forgetting a piece on the inside. When you are building hundreds of these, it's just what happens. There are several small pieces."

If an incorrectly assembled air filter is used, it could restrict airflow, causing premature failure. If the air filter is built incorrectly, it is sent back to SMC, costing the company in both rework and reputation.

But the operator would not know if an air filter was not assembled correctly just by a final visual inspection alone. That's when they found the ICS465 manual checkweigher from METTLER TOLEDO. With one quick glance, operators now know whether an air filter is missing any parts. "We just set it to show red, which means it's missing a part, or green, which means it's good," says Ricketts. "Operators have a quick indication of 'go' or 'no go.'" Now, thanks to the speed and accuracy of the manual check weigher, SMC only needs one operator for the job, which leaves the second operator free to do other productive work. Not only has this new check-weigher enhanced productivity, but it also has given the operators confidence in their work, Ricketts says.

"They look up at the scale, and they know immediately if it's been done right," he says. "They don't have to worry about numbers or recording data. They are able to do the task faster and more accurately."

"When we first explored how to error-proof this process, we looked at some options that required quite a bit of expense and were not labor efficient. We wanted an easy way to verify that all parts were present without impacting production," Ricketts says.

To learn more about how your business can benefit from the ICS465, visit: http://us.mt.com/us/en/home/supportive_content/product_information/ics-easy.html?crel=ePR_PP_EN

Contact information:
Mettler-Toledo International Inc.
Im Langacher, Zip Code 8606
Greifensee, Switzerland
E-Mail : [email protected]
Phone : +41-44-944 33 85
Website : www.mt.com